But first I must say that while I have great respect for firefighters a rather silly decision has been made at the office building in which I work. I work on the 3rd Floor. Our library (open to the public) is on the 2nd Floor. The stairwell door has been open for years and years and years and years and years and years (you get the point) so that those of us who choose can walk up to the 3rd Floor without having to have people who are going to 18 look at us as if we were cretins. Also, it's good for you to walk up and down 3 flights of stairs. It also allowed those patrons using the Library to walk up to the 2nd Floor instead of taking the elevator one stop.
There was a fire inspection on Friday. The fire department, in their infinite wisdom, has decided it's a violation of fire rules. The door to the stairwell is "an exit" not "an entrance". It is now permanently locked from the outside. You can walk down the stairs and open the door but you can no longer use the stairway to walk up stairs. As Dave, our Building Doorman and all-around Taker-Carer said, "There's no arguing with these people." Makes no sense to me but then what do I know???